Well, we definitely didn’t get anywhere with our frivolous Twitter contest to get historians of medicine and nursing to nominate and choose “Canada’s Greatest Healer”. Not a single nomination from anyone outside …

Montreal is a city with a singular history of health activism — one that, on closer consideration, has a distinct anti-fascist and humanist character. I’m reminded of this when I come out of Guy-Concordia metro station and run smack into the statue of Norman Bethune.